Help Where You Can
by Fabulous 32
Summary: A story of how Noah and Tara became friends.
1. Safety First

**Help Where You Can**

 **A story of how Noah and Tara became friends.**

 **I own nothing (and I am also guessing about the gun safety)**

 **...**

 **Safety First**

 _Tara opened her eyes to Rosita's smiling face._

 _She smiled briefly before she realised where she was… Before she remembered the explosion…_

" _Eugene… Glen..?" she gasped, trying to sit up. Her voice was dry and croaky_

" _They're okay." said Rosita softly, easing her back down to the pillow._

" _Noah..?"_

 _That is when Rosita's face changed to mask of regret._

" _No…" cried Tara._

" _Shhh." hushed Rosita trying to calm her._

" _He was my bro." Tara sobbed quietly._

…

As they walked away from Beth's grave Noah felt like an unwanted burden in a group he was barely a part of. Beth was dead and although no one said it Noah knew she had died to protect him….

The decision was made to keep Beth's promise and take Noah home. They didn't have too. They could have just left him but as Maggie said herself, if they didn't help Noah then Beth would have died for nothing.

And so began the journey to Richmond, Virginia, leaving Atlanta and the sorrow of everything that had happened at Grady Memorial hospital far behind.

…

Glen, Daryl and Sasha had scouted a town ahead and now, in a long thin crocodile, the group followed. They needed fuel for Abraham's Fire Truck and there was also the welcome prospect of a night with a roof over their heads. Noah found himself somewhere near the back of the group walking on his own.

Almost furtively Noah noticed the girl with dark hair and plaid shirt dropping back to walk beside him. Was her name Tara? He had noticed her watching him all day but he didn't know what to make of her. Tara seemed to spend half her time close to Glen, trying to console Maggie for the loss of her sister and the other half with Rosita teasing the Texan with the mullet. Was his name Gene? He liked her… or at least he thought he might like her. He just hadn't been able to draw up the courage to speak to her. At least not until now.

She leaned close and whispered.

"Your safety!"

"What?" Noah asked, confused by her statement.

Tara nodded to the semi-automatic rifle on Noah's shoulder.

"Your safety is off." She said quietly. "I thought you should know."

Noah griped his gun in what he believed to be a macho manner. He didn't know the first thing about automatic weapons but he had taken the gun when Abraham had offered it to him.

"But that's a good thing right?" he said.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Tara, stepping back as Noah waved his gun about. "Only if you want to shoot your friends… Or yourself in the leg! Here."

Tara carefully took the rifle from his hands, flicked the safety and then proceeded to check the chamber and the magazine with a practiced smoothness that Noah could only envy.

"Do you know about guns?" Tara asked.

"Only as far as which end the bullet comes out." admitted Noah.

Tara gave him a grin.

"Well first lesson." she pointed to the side of the gun. "Safety on…" she flicked a slide, "Safety off. Very important." She repeated the process. "On… off."

Noah nodded.

"So when you need to use it." Tara said, setting the safety on again and lowering the gun to her side. "You draw, flick the safety and aim… Go for the head; short bursts only." She demonstrated with a practiced ease aiming the gun towards the empty roadside, but drawing short of pulling the trigger. They couldn't waste the bullets. "When you are putting the gun back," she added, "Flick the safety on before you even lower it. Remember Safety first. And I mean that literally as well as figuratively!"

"Safety first." echoed Noah.

"You try." said Tara handing back the gun.

Noah found the safety and echoed Tara's movements, flicking the safety and aiming at the empty roadside. Then resetting it and lowering the gun to his hip.

"Better." said Tara patting him on the back. "We'll make a survivor out of you yet!"

"Thanks." said Noah. This felt the kindest thing that had happened to him for a long time.

"Now we just have to work on your aim!" Tara quipped. Noah shook his head at the joke but couldn't stop himself responding to her grin.

Yeah, he was going to like Tara.

"Thanks." he said again.

"Any time Bro." said Tara. She held her fist out to him and for a moment Noah looked at her in confusion.

"Bump it!" Tara hinted.

Noah's smile widened and he bumped her fist with his.

"Welcome to the family!"

…


	2. Help

**Help**

Richmond did not go well.

At Tyrese's funeral Noah was filled with even more guilt. There were now two people dead because of him. Tyrese was dead because Noah had wanted to go home… Beth too if he was honest… but just like everyone else standing beside him by the grave there was no going home for anyone.

The group packed up and the unspoken decision was made to head to Washington. Not because they had faith in Eugene's insistence that it would be safe… they just needed somewhere to go.

…

After the van broke down they stopped. The decision was made to split up and find supplies, before they continued along the forest road on foot. They would have one hour before continuing onwards. Noah found himself heading south into the woods with Glen, Abraham and Tara.

"Look for river beds or ditches." said Glen, "I know it's dry but there has to be water somewhere!"

Abraham and Glen headed off to the right while Tara hung back with Noah.

"How are you doing?" she asked eventually. "You haven't been saying much."

"I'm okay." said Noah quietly.

Tara put a hand on his shoulder.

"I know what you're going through." she said. "Before Glen found me I had no one left either."

"But you didn't get anyone killed." said Noah guiltily.

Tara gave a bitter laugh.

"Oh you have no idea." she said. "These people... I was in a group that went to war with these people; chased them from their home; broke them apart." Tara's face became a mask of regret. Noah, so used to her playful character, was shocked by the depth of sorrow in her eyes. "So many people died that day. I lost everything. _They_ lost everything. I don't know why they let me stay but they did. They are good people and so now I'm paying them back a day at a time."

"What do you mean?" asked Noah.

Tara stood in silence for a moment trying to put her feeling into words.

"I mean… after my sister, my niece… after they were gone I found the only way I could keep going was to be useful. If I helped, made a difference, then it was worth living. If I'm not a burden then I can hold my head up… even though the memory of Maggie's father and that sword still keeps me up at nights. Being useful is how I live my life now. It's not always easy but if you are alive you help keep the rest of world alive too. That's your job. You have to use what skills you have to help."

"And that's what you do?"

"That's what I do!"

"And what if you don't have any skills?" asked Noah hesitantly.

Tara gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Everyone is good at something." she insisted. "Can you cook; fish; tie knots?"

"I'm not sure I'm good at anything." Noah admitted.

"Then you learn to be good at something." said Tara patting his shoulder reassuringly.

"Such as…"

"Well right now finding water would be the greatest skill ever!"

…

They had been following a slope down towards a likely looking hollow but there wasn't even mud at the bottom, only dust.

That's when they heard it; the moan that could only have escaped from dead lips.

Noah tensed as he turned and saw three walkers stalking determinedly towards them.

Noah reached for his gun, but Tara stopped him and showed him the knife in her hand instead.

"Guns will just draw more. Be steady; careful and quick. Try to do it with one blow."

Her words sounded tough but Noah could see the terror in her eyes as she stepped towards the nearest walker, an old man in stained striped pyjamas. She grasped the creature's collar, holding it at arm's length with one hand and thrusting her knife into its skull with the other. Tara then took two steps back as the body dropped to the floor and readied for the next one. Despite all her bravado, for the first time Noah could see that this still terrified her. Tara was scared, but somehow she was burying it and doing what needed to be done.

Noah realised that had to be who he was now as well. He had to face his fears. He just wasn't sure he had it in him. His hands shaking a little Noah dropped his crutch and drew his own blade. This was the first walker he had faced since Richmond.

Tara was stepping up to the next walking corpse but there was another close behind, a woman with half her scalp hanging off. Noah bunched up his courage. He grabbed at the creature's clothing, trying to avoid the mouth and struck at her head with his knife. The blade sank in easily but the creature's jaws were still snapping at him. He'd missed. As the walking corpse grabbed at him Noah fell backwards, struggling to hold the snapping jaws at arm's length. In desperation Noah struggled to pry free his knife but the creature twisted in his grasp, its rotten flesh coming away in his hands. Then Tara was there and plunged her blade in the back of the walker's skull.

She pushed the body aside and held out a hand to help Noah to his feet.

"We'll work on that as well." she said, with a worried smile.

Once Noah was standing Tara handed him his crutch.

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah," said Noah more embarrassed than anything else." I can walk."

He grunted with discomfort though when he tried to take a step.

Tara sighed.

"Come here. Lean on me. I'll get you back to the road."

…


	3. Still Going

**Part 3 – Still going**

They were still walking. The dust in the air felt as dry as Noah throat. They needed water. They needed food. How long could they keep moving?

At least the walkers were no longer following; they'd culled the horde at the bridge. Well Rick and the others had. Noah had been left in the background on the other side of the gully. Tara had insisted they were the rear guard, watching the others back, but Noah knew she was guarding him as well. Right now he was feeling as useless as baby Judith.

He was watching her now, Tara. She seemed to flit along the column in a slow steady trudge, stopping to talk to people. When she did their pace seemed to quicken and their mood change and then she moved on. When she'd been up the front talking to Carl and Michonne she'd even managed to make Rick laugh, however briefly. Now that was a skill.

"You've got to admire her." said a voice at Noah's shoulder.

He turned to find Carol walking beside him. The grey haired woman scared Noah a little; she seemed half housewife, half Rambo with that great gun strapped to her shoulder. Noah realised she'd been watching him watch Tara and grinned guiltily.

"I used to think it was fear." Carol continued. "She always seemed to be there when a job needed doing… always useful, always busy. I used to think she wanted us all to like her because she was terrified we'd leave her behind. But it isn't that. I mean she's scared, all the time. Hell we all are. But it's the guilt that drives her. She's full of guilt. But rather than let it eat her up she's found a way to use it to try and keep things positive. I rather envy her that"

"She said she just wants to help people." agreed Noah.

Carol nodded.

"A very worthy goal."

Carol then gave him a small smile and quickened her pace. She moved past him saying no more and Noah wondered if the slightly scary woman with the big gun had just given him a pep talk.

Noah's eyes drifted back to Tara. She was walking beside Sasha now. Tyreese's sister was another woman that scared Noah. _God, this group had a lot of scary women in it!_ Sasha had spoken barely a word to anyone since the bridge, when her actions had almost got them all killed. She wasn't talking to Tara now either; Tara was doing the talking. And then he saw it… the subtle change. Sasha's shoulders were a little less hunched and her scowl a little less threatening. It wasn't a huge transformation but something was different.

Noah was left in awe of Tara once again.

…


	4. A Lull in the Storm

**Part 4 – A Lull in the Storm**

When the storm came they hurried as one to the barn Daryl had found. Noah found himself a place in the corner, close enough to the fire to feel the heat, but not close enough to intrude on anyone.

"Yo bro!" said Tara slumping down beside him. "How are you doing?"

Noah looked across. There was something endearing nerdy about Tara when she was trying to cool. She grinned back at him concern in her eyes.

"You looked like you could use the company." she added.

Noah nodded but didn't speak right away.

"What did you think of dinner earlier?" she asked, referring to their previous feast of stray dog by the roadside, "That gave a whole new meaning for the term hot dog, don't you think?! "

It was a bad joke. Noah knew it. Tara knew it too. They had spent the last few days dying in increments but somehow Noah found a smile.

"At least we know those ones didn't contain the government's official quotient of rat shit." she added causing Noah's small smile to widen to a grin.

"Your jokes are terrible." he said.

"So they tell me." said Tara brightly and Noah found his mood transformed as it often was when Tara was around. She reminded him of his little brothers sometimes. Although back then Noah had been the one with bad jokes.

"Talking of 'hot dogs'." said Noah, as the comment had brought another thought to the front of his mind. "I was wondering what you said to Sasha."

"What?" Tara asked. It looked like she hadn't been listening; too busy wriggling and trying to find a comfortable spot in the itchy straw.

"It's just I saw you talking to her on the road and then when we stopped and ate…"

"…Duke." finished Tara.

"Yeah, Duke…" echoed Noah, "…She was almost trying to be nice to me."

Tara shrugged.

"I just told her that although she might not feel her life is worth living right now; the world is already full to the brim with dead people and she shouldn't be adding to it out of selfishness. If you're alive you're already on the losing side, so you can only win by surviving. And you can only survive if you help each other out."

"Helping again." said Noah smiling.

Tara grinned.

"It works for me."

He starred a little longer at Tara.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" he asked.

Tara dismissed the question with another shrug.

"In case you haven't noticed. I'm nice to everyone."

Noah nodded.

"I'm not complaining." he said quickly. "I like it." he stammered. "I like you."

"I like you too." said Tara still grinning. Then Tara's expression changed a little. "But… you know I'm gay, right?"

"I'd worked it out." said Noah. He wasn't blind to how Tara would hover close to Rosita whenever she got the chance. "It's cool. I'm cool."

"I just mean you look like you could use a friend." Tara said at last.

Noah nodded. He quickly replayed all the moments between them and the easy rapport they shared.

"And there was me thinking we were already bro's." he said.

He smiled and held out his fist.

Grinning back Tara bumped his fist.

…


	5. Promise

**Part 5 – The Promise**

While Abraham and Glen struggled to get the Winnebago started on the roadside Tara left the company of Rosita and Sasha in the shade of the van and wandered over to where Noah was standing guard.

"According to Rosita she thinks we must be almost there." said Tara, standing sentry beside him.

Noah's mind was already several miles ahead in the promised safe haven of Alexandria.

"What do you think it will be like?" He asked.

Tara sighed.

"Paradise..? I don't know… Just as long as they don't try and eat us."

Noah nodded. He had heard the horror stories of Terminus.

"Or enslave us." he added.

The man had mentioned light and running water. It sounded too much like the hospital to make Noah believe it could really be as innocent as it appeared.

Noah looked across to Rick nervously pacing like a cat.

"But how can anywhere really be safe?" he asked.

"Somewhere must be." said Tara quietly. "We can't go on like this forever."

They paused as one. The thought of safety was such an alien concept after the months of danger, deprivation and death.

But then why had they trekked all this way to begin with?

Washington had been their Promised Land. Now they had finally found what they had come all this way to find and yet they couldn't trust it. It was hard to accept that in order to be safe they had to put their lives in someone else's hands. Trust just didn't come easy these days.

"Do you think there will be people our age?" Noah asked after a while.

Tara grinned shrewdly.

"Girls you mean?"

"A guy can dream." Noah said longingly, he added a grin to his friend.

"Hell yeah." said Tara equally wistful.

…


	6. The Pact

**Part 6 – The Pact**

"That was too close." Tara muttered, as they walked away from the clearing where the two jerks from Alexandria had tried stringing up a walker.

"We should have just let it eat those dicks." snarled Glen angrily.

He was already marching ahead, muttering heatedly under his breath at Aiden's stupidity.

"Admit it, you were trying to be helpful again." said Noah putting a kind hand in Tara's shoulder. She was still shaking a little. "Some people don't deserve to be helped."

The last part was pointedly for Aiden and his buddy to hear. So far Alexandria's intrepid scavengers had been less than impressive. Noah couldn't fathom what those two had been thinking, punishing a walker as if it could feel something. Noah knew he still had a lot to learn but even he was a million times smarter than those two.

Tara sighed as they moved off to follow Glen, leaving the Alexandrian idiots to trail behind. She was surveying the stinking blood and slime than now covered her arms and fingers after the walker's skin had just fallen apart in her hands.

Her sigh became a groan when she noticed the blood speckled over her shirt.

"My shirt." she moaned, choosing to focus on her clothes rather than her near brush with death.

"At least we can wash it now." Noah said. Clean clothes and a laundry service was defiantly a highlight of Alexandria… ' _Especially the laundry service'_ he thought wistfully. Noah wasn't thinking of clean clothes though, more a certain young lady who had helped deliver them. A young lady named Holly. She had definitely made laundry his new favourite thing.

"But it's my new shirt." Tara lamented.

Noah laughed. Tara had actually crowded with delight at finding a plaid shirt amongst the clothing left for them by the kind folks of Alexandria.

"You like plaid then?" said Noah.

Tara met Noah's grin.

"I've made it my thing."

"You don't think it's a little…" He stopped, trying to find a delicate way to continue.

"…lesbian?" Tara asked filling in the void for him. "It's very appropriate then isn't it?"

"I was going to say stereotypical." Noah said, defending his question.

"Well," said Tara, her smile growing mischievous. "As I am a definite minority now it doesn't hurt to advertise."

"You got your eye on someone?" Noah asked.

"Well Holly said she liked the shirt."

Noah's ears pricked up at that.

"Holly? Holly, who dropped off the clothes with Muriel? That Holly?"

"The one you were drooling at over her laundry basket…" teased Tara, "That's the one."

Noah shook his head.

"She's off limits." He insisted. "I saw her first!"

Tara held her arms wide open, all innocence.

"I just said she liked the shirt!"

Noah scowled at his friend.

"Come on, give a guy a chance."

Tara pulled a face of playful reluctance.

"I don't know she's pretty hot."

Noah knew she was just teasing but he really liked Holly…

"At least give me a chance to talk to her." he begged.

Tara shook her head in mock despair. Noah knew he had no game but he didn't really need Tara to rub it in. She was supposed to be his friend.

"Any idea what you are going to say?" she asked.

Noah's face got a pained expression. He wasn't so good at talking to girls.

…

They were approaching the high walls of Alexandria before Tara spoke up again.

"She likes Alicia Keyes and her dog is called Tyson." she said.

Noah looked up confused for a moment.

"Holly." prompted Tara, "Topics of conversation; Alicia Keyes and Tyson… _Just don't tell her you know what dog actually tastes like_." she added.

Noah gave her a grateful smile.

"I won't. Um… Thanks"

Tara's smile grew wider.

"Happy to help, bud." she said. "But if you two end up making out you better tell me! Cause if she isn't into you it's my turn. Deal?"

"Deal." agreed Noah.

He moved to shake her hand to seal the deal… and then remembered where they had been.

…


	7. Wishes

**Wishes**

Tara rubbed her hands against the cold and wondered, not for the first time, why she had volunteered for gate duty while everyone else was at Deanna's welcome party.

 _She was being helpful, that was why?_

As Glen had refused point blank to go on any more runs with Aidan without some reassurances Tara had been at a loose end at what to do after that. She wasn't going on runs without Glen. Gate duty wasn't usually too onerous. Very few Walkers wandered up to the walls and very few residents left the safety of the compound. In fact it was tediously dull. Surely one Walker wasn't too much to ask for?

While Tara was distracting herself by watching a pair of rats scuttle between the abandoned cars a throat was cleared behind her.

She spun round, one hand on her weapon.

She could clearly see in the shadows it was Noah, but being in a playful mood she demanded,

"Who goes there? Friend or foe?"

Noah stepped out, hands raised nervously.

"A friend. A friend!"

Tara laughed, sometimes she wondered if Noah got her jokes.

"Well _friend_ , you're looking pretty fly!"

Noah had clearly made an effort for the party. He had found some black pants and a smart blue shirt.

Noah grinned.

"You think Holly will like it?" he asked, giving her a little turn.

"Not being an expert I can't say for sure but I think you'll pass."

This time Noah got the joke and laughed with her.

The laughter faded.

Silence descended for a beat.

"You're sure you don't mind being out here on your own?" Noah asked.

"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't mind."

"I could keep you company for a while if you want." Noah offered.

Tara sighed. Noah was clearly trying to avoid the party. Despite their earlier pep talk he still hadn't managed to talk to the girl of his dreams.

"Go and find Holly." she insisted. "She's the one you're supposed to be keeping company tonight."

Noah grinned nervously, and wasn't budging.

Frustrated Tara gave him a little shove back towards the houses.

"Don't be a wuss." She insisted. "She'll either like you or she won't."

"And if she doesn't?"

Tara's grin widened.

"Remember our deal! If she doesn't like you she's fair game!"

Noah looked back towards the party.

There was a peel of laughter and a faint hum of music drifting across the street.

"I'd better go and make a good impression then." He said. His mask of nervousness sifted as he straightened up and took a step towards Deanna's house.

Then he stopped and turned back.

"You're sure I look alright?"

Tara gave him another shove, this time a bit harder.

"Jesus, Noah. Man up! Go get the girl!"

…

A few hours later, Tara found herself regretting her wish for Walkers. She had taken down eight and there was a small pack moaning and hammering on the one of the side walls where she couldn't get a line of sight on them. They had been drawn by the sounds of the party. At one point a loud drum and bass soundtrack had blasted across the street. It had been quickly silenced but had been more than enough to draw in a small herd.

Tara checked her watch. Nicholas and another lad were supposed to relieve her in a little while. She'd try and find Glen or maybe Rick then to help form a small hunting party to take down the Walker's she couldn't reach from the gate.

The people of Alexandria worried Tara somewhat. They didn't seem to take the threats roaming outside their walls, dead or alive, very seriously. Take guard duty for example. If she hadn't offered it was likely no one would have been on post until after the party.

Thoughts of the party caused Tara to gaze back in the direction of Deanna's house. As she watched she noticed a two figures silhouetted against the party lights walking off in the direction of the laundry block. One was tall and slim, the other small and shapely.

Tara grinned happily. It looked like Noah had summoned up the courage to talk to Holly at last.

…


	8. The Unanswered Question

**Part 5 – The Unanswered Question**

As they drove out of the compound in the back of Aiden's eagle decorated van the pumping music lowered to more acceptable decibel. Noah was sat opposite Tara. She nudged him with her foot as they turned the corner.

"So you were telling me about Holly?" she probed, rather unsubtly seeking information on the girl of his dreams she had seen him chatting up at the party the day before. "What's her deal?"

"We talked." said Noah. Not giving anything away.

"And..?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out." he teased.

Tara frowned.

"We had a deal."

Noah smirked.

"You said I only had to tell you if we'd 'made out'…"

Noah watched the realisation spread over Tara's face as she worked out what he wasn't telling her.

She held out her fist to him.

"You go bro." she said proudly.

…


End file.
